Steve Fonyo and his wife, Lisa Greenwood, celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary in Saanich Sunday afternoon, then had to rush back to Surrey to care for their baby — their 24-year-old cat Viper.

“We were going to bring him with us but then at the last minute we thought he’ll be OK for one night by himself,” Fonyo said. “He’s probably crying his head off.”

They celebrated their first year as a couple in the Cadboro Bay backyard of Norma Fitzsimmons, the retired florist who took over the wedding when other sponsors called it quits following Greenwood’s imprisonment.

Fitzsimmons has kept in touch with the couple over the past year.

She got an email from them earlier this month, saying they both celebrated their birthdays in August and another important occasion was quickly approaching.

“So after I read it, I thought, oh gosh, it’s incredible that those two are still together and still so happy. I don’t know how many people said to me, ‘Norma, it will never last.’ ”

But she had faith in the couple and organized the Aug. 28, 2010, wedding for the couple she didn’t even know.

Fonyo and Greenwood tied the knot at Fonyo Beach, named after him after the cross-country marathon that he ended there in 1985 by dipping his artificial leg into the Juan de Fuca Strait at the end of a coast-to-coast run that raised $13 million for cancer research.

Fonyo, 19 when he finished the marathon, lost his left leg to cancer when he was 12 and was inspired by Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope.

The cross-country trek earned Fonyo the Order of Canada in 1987, but he struggled in later years with drug and alcohol abuse. After a string of assault, theft and other charges, Fonyo was stripped of the honour in January 2010.

And although Fonyo and Greenwood had a rough start, they too had faith in their marriage.

“We knew deep down inside that we really loved each other. We knew it would work eventually. It just took a little longer than I thought,” Greenwood said with a laugh.

They were bickering neighbours when they first met because he was ignorant, said Greenwood, 49.

“I hated his guts.”

The highlight of the marriage for her was “when I finally saw the light bulb click above his head that I was his friend and not his enemy. That was the turning point because he fought me for a long time,” she said about Fonyo, who was charged in November 2010 with uttering threats against his wife.

“I think finally when he realized that he was married and I was his friend, I knew he was in it for good that time.”

She said Fonyo, now 46, was hard to get along with because he had been single for 12 years before they met.

He was used to doing things his way only.

Following their first few encounters, if anyone had ever told Fonyo that Greenwood would be his future wife, he would have replied, “You’re out of your mind,” he said.

On Sunday afternoon, though, they certainly appeared to be in love, flirting and sharing a cigarette on Fitzsimmons’s front lawn.

They still remember the tougher times.

When they were first married, they were living out of the back of a truck. Two months later, Fonyo served some jail time.

It was tough with him being in jail, Greenwood said.

“I was dragging the cats around and just sleeping wherever I could. It was ridiculous. I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing.”

She ended up staying in an abandoned house until he got out of jail.

“The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the morning to him outside the gate yelling my name.”

Now that they’ve got a home in Surrey, legal issues have been resolved and they each only have a few remaining months of probation to serve, the couple’s biggest challenge is getting along.

“It’s hard, just getting into fights and learning how to compromise,” said Fonyo.

“You know that word now, eh?” his wife affectionately asked.

“He seems to like the idea of having a wife,” she said. “He throws that word around — my wife this, my wife that, I need to go home to see my wife. It’s very flattering.”

Fonyo said he’s learned more this year than in the previous decade: “You know, patience, being mellow and accepting things the way they are.”

He’s made progress.

“It’s taken him a lot to co-operate and share,” Greenwood chimed in.

They’re still attracted to each other even after the tumultuous first year.

“He’s not the ugliest man I’ve ever gone out with,” Greenwood said with a laugh. Fonyo said he would take that as a compliment.

After the wedding, Fonyo asked Fitzsimmons how he could ever thank and repay her.

“You stay out of jail, be a good boy. That’ll be all the thanks I could ever ask for,” she told him.

He has been well behaved since the wedding, she said.

“He phoned me one day and said, ‘Norma, I’ve been good — so good that I don’t even jaywalk anymore.’ ”